Math Carnival

The last week of school we had an in-class math carnival. This is an extension of an activity already described in the Everyday Mathematics program, regarding teaching probability and chance. The example given is a board of 100 squares. 1 square is yellow.  What are the chances of dropping a cm cube on yellow? Students give answers like 1 in 100, or 1%.

Then a suggestion in the teacher's manual says: Have student make up their own games and have a carnival where students play each others' games (or something to that effect).

So, for several years now, I have saved this math carnival idea for the last week of school, and the students LOVE it!

I give each booth 50 carnival tickets to start, and each individual child gets 40 tickets. Students create a variety of games involving spinners, ball toss, bowling, cube drop, horse shoes, card games, dice throws, and write rules for playing on a poster. To play a game, tickets are charged, and the prizes are the tickets.

At the end of the carnival, all tickets are placed in a giant bowl and a drawing of 20 names is done for prizes in a prize box.

Watching 85 fourth graders play each others' carnival games, taking about chance and probability, is a beautiful thing to see!